Despite technology innovations and breakthroughs in interoperability, sales of connected care devices have remained slow, not counting smartphones, tablets, MP3 players/GPS devices that can be dubbed as care data terminals.

There are a few important things to note:
• Vital-sign monitoring device makers do not release sales figures of Bluetooth-enabled weight scales, glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, and pulse oximeters.
• ZigBee-enabled home monitoring kits face market challenges such as end-user resistance to high up-front costs and a lack of familiarity with home health products among channel distributors.
• PERS service providers concede that wirelessly enabled PERS devices or fall-detection sensors constitute only incremental sales to their traditional PERS services.

Parks Associates believes the industry will gradually move away from dedicated hardware platforms and instead use existing mobile CE products, particularly mobile phones for data capture, display, and interpretation.

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